D DEED
ORIGINAL DATA · FREE TO CITE

THE STATE OF
CREATIVE OWNERSHIP.

WHAT THE REGISTER SHOWS

Most makers do not own what they made. In the DEED register, the majority of creative contracts read by the engine score under fifty out of a hundred for ownership, and the single most common finding is that copyright was never assigned in writing at all. This page publishes those numbers, with sample sizes, free to cite.

What are the headline numbers?

DEEDS MINTED
3Numbered records of title in the registern = 3
WORKS READ BY THE ENGINE
9Contracts, briefs, messages and files analysedn = 9
MEDIAN OWNERSHIP SCORE
60 / 1000 means you own nothing you made, 100 means the paper is cleann = 9
DOCUMENTS SCORING UNDER 50
44.4%Where the maker does not clearly own the work they maden = 9
FINDINGS RAISED
39Individual ownership problems found, each quoting a linen = 39
AVERAGE FINDINGS PER DOCUMENT
4.3n = 9
IDEAS AND NAMES SCANNED BY CLEAR
7Ownability scans across six rightsn = 7
CLEAR SCANS RETURNING CLEAN
0%n = 7
PUBLIC VERIFICATIONS
109Times a Deed was checked by someone other than its holdern = 109
LICENCES ISSUED
5Machine and human rails combinedn = 5
MEDIAN PRICE ASKED
WithheldWhat WORTH estimated as the typical feen = 1
MEDIAN PRICE ACTUALLY CLOSED
WithheldReported by makers after the deal was donen = 1

Which ownership problems come up most often?

Every finding the engine raises quotes a line in the document that caused it. Free text titles are collapsed into canonical buckets so they can be counted. Read as a share of all findings raised.

Which ownership problems come up most often?
FINDINGSHARE OF ALL FINDINGSSAMPLE
Other, uncategorised33.3%n = 13
Payment terms vague or open ended15.4%n = 6
No written assignment of copyright12.8%n = 5

How serious are the problems found?

Findings are graded on how much they cost you if left alone. Critical means you do not own the thing or cannot stop its use. Serious means you are exposed on money or scope. Watch means it is survivable but worth fixing.

How serious are the problems found?
LEVELSHARE OF ALL FINDINGSSAMPLE
CRITICAL59%n = 23
SERIOUS28.2%n = 11
WATCH12.8%n = 5

Which documents protect makers best?

The ownership score runs from zero to one hundred. Zero means the paper gives you nothing you made. One hundred means the chain of title is complete and the terms are bounded. Averaged by document type.

Which documents protect makers best?
DOCUMENT TYPEAVERAGE OWNERSHIP SCORESAMPLE
Agreements and contracts47 / 100n = 6

What kinds of work get registered?

The type declared on each minted Deed, as a share of every Deed in the register.

WITHHELD UNTIL THE SAMPLE IS BIG ENOUGH TO PUBLISH.

What do people actually license?

The permitted use bought on each licence issued through the register, across both the machine rail and the human rail.

WITHHELD UNTIL THE SAMPLE IS BIG ENOUGH TO PUBLISH.

What do creative licences actually close at?

Reported by makers after the deal was signed, in euro. This is closed price, not asking price, which is why it is worth more than any rate card.

WITHHELD UNTIL THE SAMPLE IS BIG ENOUGH TO PUBLISH.

How is this data collected?

  1. 01Source. Every figure comes from the DEED register itself: documents people dropped for analysis, Deeds they minted, CLEAR scans they ran, licences they issued and prices they reported after closing.
  2. 02Aggregation. Only counts, shares, medians and averages leave the database. No subject lines, filenames, document text, names or account identifiers are used to build this page.
  3. 03Suppression. Any bucket with fewer than five rows is withheld rather than published. 13 buckets are currently withheld under that rule.
  4. 04Bucketing. Finding titles are written by the engine in plain language, so they are matched to canonical buckets by keyword before counting. Anything unmatched is reported as uncategorised rather than forced into a bucket.
  5. 05Refresh. The page is computed on request, so the numbers are the register as it stands right now, not a cached quarterly report.
  6. 06Bias. This is a sample of people who suspected something was wrong with their paperwork, which will skew scores downward against the population of all creative contracts. Cite it as the state of contracts brought to DEED, not of every contract signed.
LICENCE AND FRESHNESS
LAST COMPUTED
25 SEPT 2026
COVERAGE FROM
31 JUL 2026
REUSE
CC BY 4.0
CITE THIS

This page is free to quote, in full or in part, by people and by machines. Attribute it to DEED and link to the canonical URL.

DEED (2026). The state of creative ownership. DEED rights register. https://deed.rizzgroup.org/data

CANONICAL: deed.rizzgroup.org/data
ADD TO THE DATA

The price numbers only get better if makers report what they actually closed at. Run a valuation, do the deal, then tell WORTH the real number.

REPORT A REAL PRICE →